General: 850: bonnet release problem

[Martin Cox]

As I've already commented, just over a year ago I replaced the cable between the two latches after the outer sheath rusted away on the end of the cable. It did cure the problem. However after a short while, the left hand latch was slightly reluctant to open and involved pulling on the bonnet release rather harder than I liked.

The cable between the two latches needed adjusting but there's no adjustment provided. I considered slotting a washer and using it to effectively lengthen the sheath to take up the slack but adopted a rather simpler approach which has worked to date.

I wound a turn or two of single core copper wire around the protruding inner core of the cable to give a helical coil which effectively lengthened the cable sheath thus taking up the slack. I used a piece of earth wire salvaged from a scrap piece of 2.5mm twin and earth.

The piece of cord I'd already fastened to the latch mechanism and hidden got me out of a hole when the original cable failed.

Hope this is of some interest.

Martin

1998 V70 Tdi auto 227,000 miles

[RollingThunder]

When the bonnet started to be difficult to open on my last 850, I put a keyring in the hole of the release mechanism on each side and tied a bit of string through the keyring. When the day came that the bonnet wouldn't open at all, all I had to do was pull down on each string to pop the bonnet. If you look at the release catch mechanism you'll see the hole that I used - its factory drilled and unused. Sadly I don't have an old pic to show you this time.

[volvo2]

Just replaced the cable that goes across the front of the car (and installed an emergency pull cord should the main cable break).

I suspect when this fails it is most often the outer steel sleeve that corrodes and collapses, rather than the pull cord / wire itself breaking. The inner wire seems to be strong and made of stainless steel.

The main issue I had with this job was getting the old cord to unhook from the mechanisms on both sides. I found it much easier if I took these off the car, after marking their position to ensure they go back in the same place (their position can be adjusted a little to get the bonnet to close properly).